Nonprofit tenants in the former Coventry school are putting together their own planning grant as part of an attempt to acquire the 6-acre property. File photo

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council signed off Monday on a $50,000 planning grant application being prepared by the Future Heights organization for the Coventry PEACE Park campus.

If the proposed "Coventry Village 2018 Transportation and Redevelopment Study" grant is approved by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA), Future Heights would pay an 8 percent local match, totaling $4,000.

Future Heights is one of the nonprofit tenants in the former school building that closed in 2006. In May, the Cleveland Heights-University Heights school board asked the city to market the 6-acre property.

But the city has held off on issuing Requests for Proposals and Qualifications from interested private developers while the tenants line up resources to possibly take over the property themselves and keep the arts campus intact.

Potentially thrown into the mixed-use proposal could be some sustainable dwellings along unused portions of green space.

In the past, the city has scored similar planning grants through NOACA's Transportation for Livable Communities Initiative for projects like the Edgehill Road buffered bicycle lanes and the recently-completed Cedar Glen Parkway multi-purpose trail.

This could work against Future Heights -- where organizers were putting together the application on a tight time frame prior to council approval -- since NOACA generally receives $3-4 million in grant requests for $1 million in available funding, with Cleveland Heights being a recent beneficiary of the program.

Councilwoman Melissa Yasinow said she hoped that the city will not become "a victim of our own success" in the latest round of NOACA funding.

This study would focus on transportation improvements "to complement nearby assets and mixed-use redevelopment efforts in the Coventry Village neighborhood," as well as provide a "link to activity centers and also evaluate redevelopment opportunities on vacant or underutilized land."

The resolution passed unanimously, although Vice Mayor Jason Stein, while applauding Future Heights for applying, said the city continues to indirectly assist Coventry at the expense of other underserved districts such as Noble and Taylor roads that could also use some attention.

In other business, City Planning Director Richard Wong reported to council on Oct. 16 that the "CubeSmart" company last week withdrew its application to put a self-storage facility in the vacant Walmart building in Severance Town Center.

Earlier this year, Walmart drew scrutiny from the city's Board of Control, which oversees zoning around Severance, for using a portion of the 120,000-square foot building for its own storage.

This time around, Wong's staff had prepared a report for the Planning Commission recommending denial of the new request, which he said could have been conditionally permitted in a commercial zone.

"But we don't think that's the kind of use for the property that our residents are looking for," Wong said.

Representatives from CubeSmart or possibly the owner of the mall, who sent an attorney to earlier Planning Commission meetings, said they would be back with a proposal to put self-storage buildings on some of the out-parcels at Severance.

"So they thought chopping up the perimeter at Severance was going to make us happier?" Mayor Cheryl Stephens asked, adding "that really doesn't change anything."

The city's Halloween festivities for children will kick off Friday (Oct. 20) with the "Cedar-Lee Candy Crawl" beginning at 5 p.m.

Then on Sunday (Oct. 22), the Cedar-Fairmount "Fall Festival" will be going on behind Luna's and Barrio from noon to 5 p.m.

And Friday (Oct. 27) will be the annual "Coventreat" from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.

But the greatest treat of all may be the wrap-up of the multi-million dollar Cedar-Fairmount streetscape project, slated for completion on Oct. 31, according to an update by Assistant Public Works Director Andre Spencer.